After 10 weeks of play, the unthinkable happened: Hamilton dethroned Venice as Western League champions. Entering this season, Venice had not lost a league game since 2004, and won every league title since 2005. But they were knocked off by University earlier this season, and Hamilton dominated them in a 25-0 victory to end their reign.
As Hamilton was nearing victory, former players were on the sidelines, making sure that the current players knew exactly how important the win was. Their last league title was in 1995, and magical seasons like this one do not come around too often for them.
There was talk during the summer that Hamilton was going to be good, but at the time it just seemed like talk. However, their coaching staff and players believed that this could happen.
“They wanted it, and they came out and worked,” said head coach Ernest King. “We had some guys who said that they wanted it, so we just had to coach them up.”
As great a moment as this victory is, Hamilton’s team is looking for bigger accomplishments.
“We want to go for the Division II championship,” King said. “We won it in ’09, and we want it in ’14. Then possibly go D-I next year.”
A league championship and a potential city title could be the stepping stone to success in future seasons, but a few more things have to be in place for that to happen.
“Hopefully we can upgrade our field,” King said. “Get some lights, get some turf. It would take the program to a whole different level. Because it’s hard to get kids to come here when we’re playing at three o’clock.”
Hamilton is looking to build themselves into a power program, so that they can compete with the toughest schools on the Division I level. In that division, San Pedro was able to grab the top seed in the City Section playoffs after defeating Carson 17-15. That created a three-way tie for the Marine League championship, with Narbonne being the third team. All three teams finished with a 4-1 league record, and the three teams knocked each other off, so no team held the tie-breaker.
